Epidemiology of syphilis
[3] It affects between 700,000 and 1.6 million pregnancies a year, resulting in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and congenital syphilis.
[3] Syphilis increases the risk of HIV transmission by two to five times and co-infection is common (30–60% in a number of urban centers).
[6] The higher incidence of mortality among males compared to females is not well understood, but is thought to be related to immunological differences across gender.
[10] The increase has been attributed to a number of factors including: migration from rural communities to urban environments, increased numbers of unmarried men, limited screening for disease, partners not always getting notification, and the fact that high-risk groups frequently do not seek health care.
Analysis of data from a survey among MSM in seven Chinese cities reveal that the factors significantly associated with co-infection are older age, education up to senior high school, unprotected anal intercourse, recent STI symptoms, and incorrect knowledge about routes of transmission.
[12] One reason for increasing syphilis infection rates in China is suboptimal testing uptake among key populations.
SESH, a research partnership dedicated to developing creative, equitable, and effective solutions to sexual health dilemmas, has looked extensively into ways to improve syphilis detection among MSM.
[16] A five-year study among 250 patients in each year among attendees in an STI clinic in West Bengal found significantly decreased(p<0.05) Syphilis prevalence from 10.8% (in 2004) to 3.6% (in 2008).
This study was conducted at a tertiary care center so the results may not reflect the true prevalence of syphilis in the country.
Different surveillance programs determined that 84% of Chinese prostitutes had the infection and as many as 5% of citizens had the disease in large cities.
[29] The communist government under Mao Zedong, in response to the syphilis epidemic, issued free treatment for all those infected and increased screening for the disease.
[29] In the 1960s it was found that syphilis was almost completely eradicated in China[citation needed]Recent studies show evidence that the disease has seen a resurgence.
[31] The government funding of health services and social institutions went down and in turn caused fewer people to receive treatment for syphilis.
in a journal of medicine called BMJ outlines the data collected from 1995 to 2000 on sexually transmitted infections throughout western Europe.
Pregnant women, which have a high risk of infecting their children, are required to take syphilis screening and given treatment if they are found to be carrying the disease.
A study done in 2000 titled "Tracing a Syphilis Outbreak Through Cyberspace" published in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that Internet chat rooms increase the frequency of sexual contact between people, especially those of gay men.
[35] In a specific outbreak in San Francisco gay men with syphilis were found to be a lot more probable to have met their significant other through the Internet.
[36] This study in 1995 was one of the first big attempts by the World Health Organization to find a good estimate of the total population of people with syphilis and other STIs.
[citation needed] Studies by the World Health Organization pinpoint how prevalent syphilis is globally.
An article called "Congenital syphilis re-emerging" in a medical journal titled JDDG outlines the World Health Organizations findings as recently as 2008.
[37] This high number of pregnant women with the disease estimates that it will cause about 50% of the pregnancies to result in stillbirth or prenatal death.
An article titled "A Road Map for the Global Elimination of Congenital Syphilis" within a medical journal called Obstetrics and Gynecology International outlines the global efforts to combat congenital syphilis mostly dealing with the World Health Organization.
[38] Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa find it difficult to implement these kinds of treatment due to a lack of health services for their citizens which in turn makes this area a big breeding ground for congenital syphilis and the spread of syphilis through sexual contact.
The World Health Organization outlines a four-pillar plan that could help countries eliminate or at least decrease the numbers of cases of congenital syphilis.
The four pillars are "ensure advocacy and sustained political commitment for a successful health initiative, increase access to, and quality of, maternal and newborn health services, screen and treat pregnant women and partners, and establish surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation systems.
[37] The United Nations have taken steps to include on site screening and testing for syphilis among other sexually transmitted infections along with an increase in partner notification.
